Maude
by Eve Davidson
Summary: Craig and Manny had the baby in season 3 and now they are dealing with being parents and also the start of Craig's bipolar manic episode.
1. Chapter 1

"Joey, please," Craig said, the baby bag over his shoulder, Maude kind of hoisted awkwardly on one hip.

"Craig, no,"

Maude was one year old, a rambunctious child who got into everything. At Craig and Manny's apartment all the corners were covered with foam and the light sockets were plugged with plastic and anything even remotely breakable was up high and out of reach. But she could reach it.

"Joey, I know, but I have band practice tonight and I can't bring her, it's too loud-"

"That's unfortunate, Craig, but I have plans. You wanted to have this child and now you are going to have to take care of her. It's a sacrifice, in a way. You can't just run off and do whatever you want anymore. Call a babysitter,"

He sighed, watching Joey get ready for another date. Angie was god knew where. Maude pulled at his hair, getting a handful of curls and yanking. She was adorable, with big dark eyes and sandy brown hair that curled almost as much as Craig's. She laughed, pulling his hair again.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Manny was out at cheerleading practice. No one was available to babysit. The dishes were piled too high in the sink but Craig didn't have the energy to do them. He never had any energy anymore. His cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Jesus, Craig, where are you?" It was Marco, and he could hear the band practicing behind him.

"I'm home. Couldn't find a babysitter,"

"So bring her," Marco said.

"No. It's too loud for her, it'll hurt her ears,"

"Okay. Bye, then,"

"Yeah, bye,"

He hung up, watched Maude pull at the edge of the curtains. She'd pull it down and he didn't care. He sat slumped in the chair, his legs stretched out in front of him. The T.V. was on with some bizarre cartoon that he didn't even think was educational, Maude wasn't watching it anyway. Then his phone rang again.

"Craig?" It was Manny, and he could hear the hollow sounds of shouts in the gym behind her.

"Yeah?"

"Don't forget to give Maude a bath tonight, okay?"

"Yeah. I won't forget,"

"Good. Tell her I love her," Manny said, and she sounded happy. Craig wondered at that.

"I will. I'll tell her,"

"I love you, too," she said.


	2. Chapter 2

Craig thought about band practice. He watched Maude as she made her way from one end of the living room to the other. She would cling to furniture, take a few wobbly steps, fall on her butt. He eyed the diaper warily. She needed to be changed. He hoped Manny remembered to pick up diapers.

The diaper needed to be changed. The dishes needed to be done. She needed a bath, not to mention his homework. Homework. It seemed so silly to have homework and to be a father. He was screwing up royally in school, he might even fail science if he didn't pull it together. At this rate Maude could be doing homework with him. He sighed, feeling irritable and tired and unwilling to do the mountain of things that needed to be done. Manny got to be at cheerleading practice and he was stuck here. He closed his eyes and thought of everyone at band practice without him. Then he got up and hunted for a diaper.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Maude, bath time," he said, watching the tub fill, watching the rubber duckie rise and bob with the rising water. He heard the shrill ring of his cell phone in his pocket and answered it as Maude toddled off toward the kitchen. Out of his view.

"Hello?"

"Hey, what's up?" It was Ashley, and he felt ashamed at the flush of pleasure he felt at hearing her voice. He sometimes wondered what things would be like if he'd got her pregnant instead of Manny.

"Uh, nothing," He felt torn between turning the water off so it wouldn't overflow or running after Maude right now. God knew what she was into now.

"Are you busy?" she said. He twisted the knob of the faucet and ran from the bathroom, through the short carpeted hall, and into the kitchen. Maude had pulled herself up onto a chair and was eating something. Whatever it was it was white and powdery. The powder was on her fingers and around her mouth. He closed his eyes, hoping whatever it was wasn't toxic.

"Uh, yeah, kinda," He let out his pent up breath when he saw a box of powdered doughnuts Manny had picked up at a convenience store.

"Should I let you go?"

"Yeah. Uh, I'll call you back, okay?" He grabbed Maude from the chair, getting the powder of the donut she devoured all over his clothes. He carried her under one arm to the bathroom, clicked his cell phone closed with the other hand and shoved it into his pocket.

"C'mon, kid," he said, and she smiled up at him with this half crazy smile, her mouth all covered with the white powder from the donuts. He smiled despite hating the powdered sugar on his clothes, and that kind of thing made him feel like his father. Maude kind of looked like Angie when she smiled like that. He put her gently into the bathtub and thought about Ashley.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Maude was bathed and in bed and asleep. Craig sighed, tiptoeing from her room. She looked so cute, her curls still damp from the bath, and she smelled like baby soap. That reminded him of when Ang was a baby, and his mom was alive.

One thing done, but he saw the pile of dishes in the sink with the food drying and congealing on them. They didn't even have a dishwater. They couldn't afford an apartment that had one, which totally sucked. It was getting later and later and where the hell was Manny?

He called Ash while the sink was filling with water, glancing into the parking lot for a car dropping off Manny. The parking lot was still.

"Hi," she said, and he liked her voice, musical and adult and sexy.

"Hi,"

"Less busy now?" she said, laughing. He squirted soap on the sponge and started scrubbing a plate.

"Sort of. Just a different kind of busy,"

He was amazed that Ash had decided to be friends with him. She watched the whole pregnancy and babysat Maude off and on and seemed very relieved that it wasn't her. He could feel her feeling it. He could see it every time she handed Maude back to Manny or to him.

"Do your homework yet?" she said, and he felt kind of annoyed at that question. Irritated. It was the undertone of smugness in her voice.

"Not yet. I'll get to it,"

"I know you will. You drink enough coffee to keep those South American cities going,"

The dishes were finished and dripping in the dish drain. The living room was still a mess and the kitchen table was buried under papers and junk and the torn box of doughnuts, but at least the dishes were clean. And he'd get to his homework sometime. Hopefully before tomorrow morning, hopefully before it was due.


	3. Chapter 3

Dishes were done, living room was somewhat cleaned up, papers were pushed to the side on the kitchen table and there was at least some space on it now. Maude was rocked and comforted after she woke up crying and put back to bed, the tears drying on her little face. Craig thought she missed her mother, maybe. He did his homework in the glow of the muted T.V. and a big black coffee by his hand that he constantly sipped on, trying to feel awake. And still Manny wasn't home.

It was getting later and later, and he knew the band had all gone home from Marco's. Later and later, the hours he had to sleep before he had to get up tomorrow were being chipped away. There was so much to do. He had to read all these chapters in history and study for science and do a chem lab and do a page and a half of geometry proofs and he had to write an essay for English and his eyes were starting to close despite the coffee and he could hear Maude stirring again. She made these little squeaky sounds and the T.V. was flashing under the red mute sign and he could hear cars rushing by outside and the numbers on the clock were flying by and he was screwed and where the hell was Manny?

His eyes closed and his chin fell to his chest and he was asleep, books open on the living room rug all around him. Then the crying jolted him awake. He sat bolt upright, spilled his coffee all over his English paper and his jeans and swore. Blinked at the cable box clock. 1 A.M. God help him.

"I'm coming, sweetie," he called to his daughter, stumbling to her room. She was standing in the crib, holding onto the bars like a tiny prisoner, tears streaming again. He picked her up and held her, swayed where he stood with the baby in his arms, sang to her a little, she still cried. He brought her over to the changing table and checked, she was wet again, maybe she was hungry again.

The baby was changed, fed, rocked, and he held her sleeping in his arms and it was quarter to two in the morning and he wasn't sure if he'd even get any sleep tonight and maybe Manny just wasn't coming home at all tonight. Maybe she was screwing around, but he was honestly too tired to care. Maude smelled good, like baby shampoo and baby powder.

2 A.M. Maude was still asleep. He tiptoed with her to her room and gently laid her in the crib. He went back to his homework and doggedly tried to finish it, even though he was so tired now he could cry. This is just what everyone said would happen, Joey and Manny's parents and Spinner and Ashley and everyone. They said he couldn't handle it. Being a father at 16, was he crazy?

Oh but how he wanted this. He had wanted a little family all for him, because he only stayed at Joey's house, he didn't really belong there. He hadn't really belonged anywhere. His mother died. His father had beat him. Joey took him in but he knew how it was, some step-kid hanging around. But the baby and Manny, they were his. His. And he didn't care if he was 15 and Manny was 14 when Maude was born, he didn't care if he couldn't drive and didn't work and had no time for anything and doubted whatever it was he and Manny had, he didn't care. He needed this. He had to have it.

But Ashley kept creeping into his thoughts. He missed her. Missed her maturity. Manny was always off somewhere, always involved in things he thought were kind of childish. He felt like he couldn't relate to her, not like he could with Ash. But what hope did he have now? He'd cheated on her, got Manny pregnant, and now he lived with Manny. There was no hope. He'd grow old with Manny. He wouldn't do to Maude what was done to him. He wouldn't let her have a broken home, a broken family.

His friendship with Ashley would have to be enough. It could be, he was sure. It could be. He'd get a handle on this. Time management, that was the thing, the issue. He'd utilize his time better. But it felt like so much work, so much cleaning and feeding and changing and bathing the baby and doing homework, and he had no life anymore. He was barely in his own band because he could never get to the rehearsals. He didn't have hardly anytime for anyone but Maude and Manny, and Manny was hardly around.

Two thirty A.M. He was done his homework. He pulled his T-shirt off, slipped out of his coffee stained jeans, pulled his socks off and fell into bed, alone. He was asleep before his head touched the pillow. Manny's side of the bed was cold.


End file.
